G Joel Bitonio (10.24.22)
On if this season has felt different compared to past ones, given the Browns have had tough seasons during his career:
“It feels different in the sense that some of those bare seasons we just didn’t have enough to compete at a high level. I think every game this year, maybe minus the Patriots, we have really competed well and been there in the end. It comes down to executing in those big moments, and it is little things. Little things add up to big things, but it is those little things that you have to execute and find a way to get a win down the stretch in some of these games.”
On the Browns allowing five sacks yesterday:
“Anytime you don’t want the quarterback to get sacked. I thought we were doing a pretty good job earlier in the season. This game, there was a couple where they zero-blitzed us, and we didn’t have an answer for it so they had one more guy than we could block. That was a couple of sacks. A of couple times, guys just got beat. There were a couple of scheme ones and just a couple one-on-one matchups where a guy just lost his matchup. Hopefully, you can fix the scheme ones, and you try not to have too many of the one-on-one ones.”
On not being able to sustain drives and score points in the second and third quarters:
“We had the one drive where we were backed up, and (Ravens ILB) Patrick Queen ran through a couple of times and made some plays. I think that really threw us off. I think we had three or four punts in that little stretch there. It just wasn’t our game. When you get behind the sticks for us, it is really tough to be able to run the ball and be able to keep going on those things. He made a couple of good plays on that, and that threw us behind. I think that threw us off of our run game on first-and-10 a little bit. The second half, we got back into it on a couple of those drives and we were feeling a lot better about ourselves. We kind of picked that up a little bit better.”
On if he believes the Browns can stay in contention for the playoffs moving forward:
“Yeah, I do. I just really do have faith in the people in the building. Top-down, I really do have faith in those guys and have faith in my teammates. I know there is a win out there for us. You get one, and it can turn to two. You see teams recently – maybe the Eagles have done it and the Titans have done it – where they have been not great early in the season – I think the Colts maybe even and the Dolphins won like eight or nine in a row; they didn’t end up making the playoffs I don’t think – but there have been teams in recent years that have turned it around. I think we have the right guys to do that.”
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